Guy GlodisSPRINGFIELD - A leading candidate for state auditor held his Western Massachusetts campaign kickoff in Springfield on Friday, pledging to reinvent the role of the watchdog office.
Worcester County Sheriff Guy W. Glodis, one of three Democrats running for the open auditor’s post, was endorsed by a crowd of local political leaders during an event attended by about 100 people at O’Brien’s Corner restaurant on Page Boulevard.
Glodis, 40, of Auburn, said he wants to raise the profile of the auditor’s office. As auditor, for example, he said he would investigate federal stimulus spending to assure it’s used for economic development such as solar or high-speed rail in Western Massachusetts, not just closing state budget deficits.
He said he would work for curbing and reducing state laws that mandate municipal services without providing enough state funding. That could save money for cities and towns and lower property taxes, Glodis said.
“I see an opportunity to make the auditor’s office more than a fiscal watchdog,” Glodis said.
Glodis, former one-term state representative and three-term state senator for Worcester, announced this week in Boston in what is expected to be a hot Democratic primary for the four-year auditor’s position.
The two other Democrats are Suzanne M. Bump, 53, former state secretary of labor and workforce development, former four-term state representative from Braintree and current home owner in Great Barrington, and Michael E. Lake, 31, of Boston, executive director of the World Class Cities Partnership at Northeastern University who is making his first run for elective office.
The Republican candidates are Mary Z. Connaughton, 49, of Framingham, former four-year director of the defunct Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and two lesser known hopefuls - Earle B. Stroll, 55, who lost the GOP primary for auditor in 1994 and Kamal Jain, 40, of Lowell, a director of network operations and customer service for an online gaming company in Natick and a libertarian candidate for auditor in 2002.
The winners of the Sept. 14 primary elections would face each other in the Nov. 2 general election.The candidates are lined up to succeed Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci, who announced last year that he will not seek re-election after six terms on Beacon Hill.
Glodis, who is leaving a safe seat as sheriff and attended a series of events in Springfield on Friday, said it’s important for him to do well in the election in the central and western part of the state. “I’m a very blue collar moderate Democrat,” he said.